Mutual fund fees drop, saving investors money

Mutual fund fees drop, saving investors money

NEW YORK -- It hasn’t been this cheap to invest in mutual funds for decades, possibly ever. Expenses dropped again last year for both stock and bond funds, and they’re at their lowest levels since at least 1996, as a percentage of their total assets … Continue reading at nwitimes.com

HDFC Mutual Fund compensates investors of front-running losses

New Delhi: Nearly nine years after a major front-running case at HDFC Mutual Fund, the leading fund house has begun compensating those investors who had suffered losses due to the manipulative activity of its then equities dealer. While the dealer was … Continue reading at zeenews.india.com

Can Foreign Investors Buy U.S. Mutual Funds?

U.S. securities laws don’t put prohibitions on investments by foreign investors, according the same protections that U.S. citizens get. However, from a practical standpoint, many companies that sell proprietary mutual funds to investors have internal … Continue reading at nasdaq.com

Mutual Funds

Top 5 Mutual Fund Holders of United Technologies (UTX, VTSMX)

United Technologies Corporation (NYSE: UTX) is an industrial manufacturer of products for aerospace, defense and building systems. It is well known for Otis elevators and Pratt & Whitney aircraft engines. As of March 2016, Honeywell International Inc … Continue reading at investopedia.com

The Motley Fool: Choosing mutual funds no guarantee of wise investing

The E-Edition includes all of the news, comics, classifieds and advertisements of the newspaper. And it’s available to subscribers before 6 a.m. every day. Q: Can I avoid making dumb investing mistakes if I stick with mutual funds instead of stocks? Continue reading at dispatch.com

Mutual Funds For DummiesPosition your portfolio for growth with one of America’s bestselling mutual fund books Are you looking for a trusted resource to h…

Investment in mutual funds, single fund: SECP identifies limits

The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has said that the Rules and S.R.O. 261(1)/2002 (S.R.O.) provide that investment in mutual funds shall not exceed the 50 percent of the fund and investment in single fund not to exceed the 20 percent … Continue reading at brecorder.com

MUMBAI: Investors will soon get to know how much portion of their amount is used by mutual funds to pay distributors commission. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has asked mutual fund houses to clearly mention the actual commission … Continue reading at economictimes.indiatimes.com

SBI Mutual Fund to conduct awareness programme

To create awareness on safe investment options SBI Mutual Fund will conduct an awareness programme on investment formula in Dakshina Kannada district. The campaign is in line with the Union government’s vision of financial inclusion, said Jayesh Shraff … Continue reading at nyoooz.com

Hidden Mutual Fund Fees That Are Robbing Your Returns

So you’ve accumulated a nest egg by investing in mutual funds. Congratulations! That puts you ahead of the game. But to grow an even bigger stash, try squeezing out the fees. “Make sure you pay as little of that gross return in fees as you can,” says Mitch … Continue reading at msn.com

* Dollar cost averaging

In addition to diversifying into different assets, you also should diversify your investments over time using dollar cost averaging.

Dollar cost averaging is a simple technique, and if you’re investing on a monthly basis, you’re already taking advantage of it.

Suppose over the course of a year you want to invest ,600 into a stock fund in your 401(k) account. To make saving easy and regular, you have your company withhold 0 from your paycheck each month.

Under your plan you’d invest 0 in January. Let’s also assume that the market hit an all-time high in January. The next month the market goes down by 10 percent.

So you’ve lost 10 percent on the money you invested in January, but if you continue with your regular investments, your 0 will buy more shares in February than it did in January because of the drop.

By investing regularly, I hope you see that dollar cost averaging forces you to buy fewer shares when securities are expensive, and lets you buy more shares when they’re cheaper. It’s not exactly market timing, but it has a similar effect.

Dollar-cost averaging can’t guarantee you’ll make a profit, but it can reduce your risk significantly. To see the power of dollar cost averaging, consider investing in stocks during the Great Depression.

From 1929 to 1932 stock prices fell 90 percent. However, if you had used dollar cost averaging from 1928 to 1938 you would have shown a profit of about 7 percent per year.

Bad way to select mutual funds Before we get into the topic of selecting specific mutual funds, I’d like to say a few words about using funds to beat the market.

Unfortunately, many people don’t pick funds very well. They just grab the most recent copy of Money magazine and open to the page titled “Best Performing Mutual Funds”. They look to the top of the list, and send their money to the number one fund because, after all, everyone wants to invest with a winner.

Although there are worse ways to select a mutual fund, this is not the best method. The problem with this method is that you’re investing based on past performance. If you send in money to the fund today, you don’t care what the fund did yesterday, you care about what it will do for you tomorrow.

Investing in yesterday’s winners Often, when you follow the “invest in yesterday’s winners” strategy, yesterday’s winner’s become tomorrow’s losers. With over 6,000 mutual funds available, to get to the top of the list the number one fund may have had to invest in risky securities.

When these risky securities came into fashion, the fund did well. The fund rose to the top of the fund rankings and money is now pouring into the fund.

But the fund managers don’t know what do with all this new money, so they invest in securities that they don’t understand. Soon, the market will switch away from the securities that made the fund a hit in the first place, and the new investors will wind up taking losses.

Another problem with the “invest in yesterday’s winners” strategy is that you’ll probably pay more in expenses than necessary. When a fund has done well, fund managers know that many people will pay for yesterday’s performance, so they place heavy sales commissions on the fund or raise the fund’s management fees. After paying all these extra expenses, it’ll be even tougher for you to beat the market.

Money Matters

"The housing bubble will burst rather than gradually deflate, following the rapid and violent pattern of decline of nearly every financial bubble throughout history," Lubaszka says. "Higher interest rates negatively impact not only the health of the housing market but other economic segments as well. The stock market takes a hit because higher rates make it more costly for companies to pay for debt. Higher rates hurt corporate profit margins and reduce stock value, bad news given the deep debt situation so many companies are in today."

There are brokers, and then there are brokers. The best of the breed will answer all questions, and make the process of first-time gold buying less nerve-wracking. Great brokers are also accessible when needed, and quick to call with any new information that affects the value of the investment.

There are several pay-out methods available when you begin receiving annuity payments. With some options, you or your beneficiaries can select how you want to be paid. The following are some of these: